© Norwegian Journal of Entomology. 9 December 2013 Old and new Norwegian records of Camillidae (Diptera), a family missing from the checklist LOUIS BOUMANS Boumans, L. 2013. Old and new Norwegian records of Camillidae (Diptera), a family missing from the checklist. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 60, 169–171. Eleven specimens of Camilla flavicauda Duda 1922 were accidentally reared indoors in Oslo, and a twelfth one was later found free living. In addition, four old specimens of Camilla glabra (Fallén, 1823) were found in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Oslo. These constitute the first records of the small family Camillidae for Norway. The identification literature and the likely substrate of the larvae of C. flavicauda are discussed. Key words: Diptera, Ephydroidea, Camillidae, Camilla flavicauda, Camilla glabra, Norway. Louis Boumans, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172 Blindern, NO-0318 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: [email protected] Introduction my terrace during spring and summer, and were filled with garden turf (ca. 10 L) with a high Camillidae constitute a small family of flies proportion of organic matter. In addition, I brought resembling Drosophilidae and Ephydridae. into my home some three litres of sandy garden Around ten species are known from the Western soil for geranium cuttings. This soil was taken Palaearctic. In the past decades, relatively from under a veranda, had been relatively dry many species have been described from the throughout the year and contained little organic Afrotropical region (Papp 1998; Marshall 2012: matter. The containers were placed in an unheated 355). The species of north-western Europe can room (10–15°C in winter) in front of a window. be identified with the keys of Papp (1985) and, From December to May, a range of Diptera more easily, with the keys and illustrations of the and some other insects emerged from these Camillidae of the Netherlands (Beuk & de Jong substrates and collected against the window, the 1994) and Switzerland (Merz 2008). As there has most conspicuous in size and numbers being been confusion about the identity of most taxa Tipulidae, Limoniidae and Anthomyiidae. These of European Camilla Haliday, 1838, all older species most probably emerged from the garden identifications need to be checked. Little is known turf. Among the less conspicuous flies were about the larval biology of Camillidae, but larvae eleven specimens of Camilla flavicauda Duda, and adults are associated with excrements of birds 1922 (Camillidae) (Figure 1). A further specimen and excrements and burrows of small mammals that must have emerged outdoors was collected in (Basden 1961; Beuk & de Jong 1994; Papp 1998; July. The Fauna Europaea checklist (Carles-Tolrá Merz 2008). 2004) and Artsnavnebasen (artsdatabanken.no) In autumn 2013, I took flower pots indoors list no Camillidae species at all for Norway. for the purpose of overwintering geraniums I checked the Camillidae collection at the (Pelargonium). These pots had stood outside on Natural History Museum in Oslo (NHMO, aka 169 Boumans: Old and new Norwegian records of Camillidae (Diptera) FIGURE 1. Camilla flavicauda Duda, 1922, male from Oslo. This one has three vibrissae on each side of the mouth cavity, while two vibrissae are typical. Photo: Karsten Sund. ZMUN), where I found four specimens from Camilla glabra (Fallén, 1823) the collection of J.H. Siebke (1816–1875), all NORWAY AK, Oslo: Bæklag, 27.VI.1853, 1 ex; belonging to C. glabra (Fallén, 1823). The Museum idem 17.VII.1853, 1 ex; OS (?) ‘Fron.’ [no date] 1 of Natural History in Trondheim (NTNU) has no ex; B Hallingdal [no date] 1♂. All specimens leg. Camillidae (pers. comm. T. Ekrem, 22.IV.2013). J.H. Siebke. Catalogue nrs. Gl 1630-1633. The University Museum in Bergen housed one These old specimens bear no identification specimen labelled as Camilla, which I checked label, but the museum’s handwritten catalogue and identified as a species of Ephydridae. “Gl. 1-5000 Diptera” documents that they have been identified by J.E. Collin via E.B. Basden. Collin (1956) makes no mention of Norwegian The records specimens. The sex is difficult to ascertain, as the male genitalia are very small and covered by the Camilla flavicauda Duda, 1922 terminal tergites in dried specimens. I refrained NORWAY AK, Oslo: Søndre Nordstrand, from making preparations for sex identification. Bjørnås, garden (emerged indoors) 59.834°N 10.833°E, 3.IV.2013–24.IV.2013, 5♂♂6♀♀; idem (on window pane but emerged outdoors) Discussion 19.VII.2013, 1♀. leg. & det. L. Boumans. 2♂♂ and 2♀♀ are deposited at NHMO, the rest in my In view of Camillidae being associated with private collection. mammal excrements, it seems plausible that the 170 Norwegian Journal of Entomology 60, 169–171 (2013) C. flavicauda specimens collected indoors did Notulae Entomologicae 41, 124–129. not originate from the turf substrate but rather Beuk, P. & de Jong, H. 1994. De Nederlandse soorten from the sand. Neighbourhood cats tend to use van de Camillidae (Diptera). Entomologische dry sand as a latrine. The specimen collected in Berichten 54 (1), 1–6. July was found at 1.5 m distance from this sand Carles-Tolrá, M. 2004. Fauna Europaea: Camillidae. In: Fauna Europaea: Brachycera version 2.4, patch. Basden (1961: 128) reared C. flavicauda http://wwwfaunaeur.org (Pape, T. & Beuk, P., eds). from “entrance soil of rabbit burrows”, which also [accessed 11 April 2013] suggests a sandy substrate. Collin, J.E. 1956. On the identity of Fallén’s Drosophila One of the characters distinguishing C. glabra glabra (Dipt., Camillidae). Entomologist’s Monthly from C. flavicauda is the number of vibrissae: Magazine 92, 225–226. three pairs in the former, two in the latter. Duda, O. 1922. Liodrosophila und Sphaerogastrella, However, some specimens of C. flavicauda have zwei neue, zu den Drosophiliden und nicht zu three vibrissae on one side (Beuk & de Jong 1994). den Camilliden gehörige Dipteren-Gattungen aus This is also the case in one of the male specimens Südostasien. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 88 (A4), from Oslo. Another male even has three vibrissae 150–160. on both sides, though one vibrissa is small. This Dyntaxa. 2013. Svensk taxonomisk databas. www. dyntaxa.se. [accessed 11 April 2013] variation can be confusing if one identifies the Marshall, S. 2012. Flies. The natural history and flies with the keys ofPapp (1985) or Merz (2008). diversity of Diptera. Firefly Books, New York. The female, but not the male, of C. flavicauda is Merz, B. 2008. Une petite famille de Diptères négligée th characterised by the yellowish colour of the 5 en Suisse: les Camillidae (Diptera). Entomo tergite and the latero-ventral borders of the 3rd and Helvetica 1, 15–26. 4th tergites (cf. Duda 1922: 152, describing the Papp, L. 1985. A key of the World species of female). Camillidae (Diptera). Acta Zoologica Hungarica 31 Both C. flavicauda and C. glabra are (1-3), 217–227. widespread in Europe, including Finland and Papp, L. 1998. Family Camillidae. Pp. 531–535 in Sweden (Carles-Tolrá 2004; Dyntaxa 2013). Papp, L. & Darvas, B. (Eds.) Manual of Palaearctic One to three additional species of Camillidae Diptera 3. Budapest. are likely to occur in Norway. Camilla atrimana Received: 29 April 2013 Strobl, 1910 is reported from Finland and Sweden Accepted: 2 August 2013 (Carles-Tolrá 2004; Dyntaxa 2013) and two more species, C. nigrifrons Collin, 1933 and C. fuscipes Collin, 1933 are known from the United Kingdom and Germany, and the latter also from the Netherlands (Carles-Tolrá 2004). Acknowledgements. I thank Karsten Sund, NHMO, for taking the beautiful habitus picture, and Per Djursvoll and Steffen Roth for their help in consulting the collection of the University Museum in Bergen. Torbjørn Ekrem checked the collection of the Museum of Natural History in Trondheim. Herman de Jong, Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, gave useful feedback on a draft version of the manuscript. References Basden, E. 1961. Notes on the Camillidae (Diptera) in Strobl’s collection and on the biology of Camilla. 171.